Pilot recalls special Fourth of July flight

To the editor:

Happy Independence Day.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a small jet training base commander to decide to have the best and biggest Fourth of July fireworks, wheels are set in motion.

Two intrepid old jet pilots decide to take the base Beechcraft D18 (a decrepit World War II type aircraft with two engines and a tail wheel) from south Texas to Yankton, South Dakota. I wanted more time in the aircraft and my buddy wanted to visit his mother in Yankton which also was home to a huge fireworks factory.

Every base had a Beechcraft which was used for pilots with desk jobs to get flight time. It was OK in the air but on the ground with that tail wheel and weak brakes it was another thing. We had one at Roos Roads Naval Base until some Marine jet jockeys borrowed it, took it to St. Thomas and rolled it up into a little ball at Truman Airport. There went our D-18 and when you lost one you didn?t get another one.

The flight went well although it felt like floating across the continent in a balloon. We loaded it up at the factory so that you could barely get to the pilots? seats and flew it home uneventfully, all the time trying not to think of the word ?spark.?

We hold these truths to be somewhat self-evident:

1) The base had the best fireworks ever seen in the area.

2) I learned a little more about the D-18 (no tax dollars wasted).

3) If we had crashed there would probably still be rockets going off.

Happy Fourth.

 ? Carlos Font, Fairfield